CSM Cantiga 173 Lyrics: Tantas en Santa María son mercees e bondades †Cantiga 173Mettmann observes that at least one stanza appears to have gone missing from this cantiga (between the third and fourth stanzas that remain) even though there are no gaps in the manuscripts. What Mettmann fails to mention, however, is the fact that in both [E] and [T] the metre changes after this omission, with all masculine rhymes (final stress) gaining a syllable and becoming feminine (penultimate stress). Indeed, his usual footnote summarising the metre is conspicuous in its absence, indicating perhaps that he saw the problem but could not decide what to do about it. Stephen Parkinson [SP2012] likens the cantiga to the welding together of the halves of two stolen cars, and presents a convincing case for the text being the result of the accidental conflation of sections from two independently composed cantigas on the same miracle story.

Performance-wise, given the gap and the change in metre, this cantiga might reasonably be reserved for a purely instrumental interpretation. However, for the sake of completeness, I suggest the following solution for singers: where there is a single perfected virga.on at the end of the musical phrase, carrying the final stressed syllable of dizer, creer, acorrer, mal, mortal etc., this can be split into a .o + .on pair with the same duration, thereby matching the rhythm of the refrain. (Referring to Elmes' edition, the dotted minim should be divided into crotchet + minim.) These two notes can then take the final two syllables of carreira, enteira, and so on, at the points indicated by double underlining in my text.

Standard spelling

JavaScript is disabled in your browser. Many features of this site will be unavailable and some content will not be displayed correctly.

Footnotes

Mettmann observes that at least one stanza appears to have gone missing from this cantiga (between the third and fourth stanzas that remain) even though there are no gaps in the manuscripts. What Mettmann fails to mention, however, is the fact that in both [E] and [T] the metre changes after this omission, with all masculine rhymes (final stress) gaining a syllable and becoming feminine (penultimate stress). Indeed, his usual footnote summarising the metre is conspicuous in its absence, indicating perhaps that he saw the problem but could not decide what to do about it. Stephen Parkinson [SP2012] likens the cantiga to the welding together of the halves of two stolen cars, and presents a convincing case for the text being the result of the accidental conflation of sections from two independently composed cantigas on the same miracle story.

Performance-wise, given the gap and the change in metre, this cantiga might reasonably be reserved for a purely instrumental interpretation. However, for the sake of completeness, I suggest the following solution for singers: where there is a single perfected virga.on at the end of the musical phrase, carrying the final stressed syllable of dizer, creer, acorrer, mal, mortal etc., this can be split into a .o + .on pair with the same duration, thereby matching the rhythm of the refrain. (Referring to Elmes' edition, the dotted minim should be divided into crotchet + minim.) These two notes can then take the final two syllables of carreira, enteira, and so on, at the points indicated by double underlining in my text.

Oxford CSM Database record

Links to the Oxford database are provided with the kind permission of the project team.
When planning a concert or recording, I would recommend that you use (and credit) my more pragmatic texts and supporting
materials in the preparation of your performance, but that you request permission from the Oxford database team to
reproduce (and credit) their own critically edited texts in your programme or liner notes, as these adhere to
stricter criteria that keep them closer to the original sources, and undoubtedly have the greater academic authority.

Metrical summary

Refrain

7' | 7' 7' | 7'

Stanzas

7' | 7 7' | 7 7' | 7 7' | 7'

I II III

7' | 7' 7' | 7' 7' | 7' 7' | 7'

IV V

Rhyme

AA / bbbA

R

I

II

III

IV

V

A

ades

b

eɾ

al

eŋ

ei̯ɾa

emos

Estimated performance times

Average syllables / min.

Time

Very slow

50

9:56

Slow

100

4:58

Medium

150

3:18

Fast

200

2:29

Very fast

250

1:59

These are very approximate total times for a full sung (or spoken) performance of all stanzas with all repeats of the refrain.
Note that the speed is in average syllables per minute, and no particular mensural interpretation is assumed.
More ornamented music will reduce the syllabic speed considerably. Remember also to add time for instrumental preludes,
interludes and postludes.

You must not copy the content of this site to any other site on the web,
nor may you extract the content and re-publish it in any other form.
It is provided free of charge for direct use by amateur and professional
performers of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
This printed document originates from www.cantigasdesantamaria.com and its content
may not be extracted or re-published in any form. It is provided free
of charge for direct use by amateur and professional performers of the
Cantigas de Santa Maria, who are permitted to make a limited number of copies,
consistent with individual or ensemble use. If you wish to disseminate this
material more widely, it is requested that you direct others to the website
where they can access and print it for themselves.
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the editorial quality, fidelity
to the original sources and academic reliability of this work, it cannot be
guaranteed 100% error-free, and the copyright holder accepts no responsibility
for any negative consequence of performing or recording this material. If this
leaves any doubt, please email specific queries to the address above.